Bioneers

After sustaining a deep wound to his face during an assumed fight with another male, a wild Sumatran orangutan named Rakus did something that astounded researchers. First, he began feeding on a liana, a plant with potent medicinal qualities. After a time, he stopped swallowing, but continued chewing. Then for several minutes, he applied the fluid from the chewed vegetation to his wound before covering the open flesh with the plant mash. This observation was groundbreaking — the first time that a wild animal was observed treating his or her own wound with a healing plant. Bioneers spoke with Dr. Isabelle Laumer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany and the lead author of a recently published paper in Scientific Reports, about the observations of the international research team, the broader implications of Rakus’ behavior, and how the paper’s findings relate to her other research on animal cognition. 🦧 Read our Q&A with Laumer: https://lnkd.in/gCrCruAE

Western psychotherapy aims to bring clients back to baseline “normal.” But our collectively traumatized world must not be accepted as “normal” when it is, in fact, profoundly unwell. Moving toward healing and purpose in uncertain times means evolving the way we do therapy and the way we think about mental health. “Climate, Psychology, and Change,” edited by climate psychologist Steffi Bednarek, invites us to co-create a field that navigates unknown futures with skill and grace – one that helps clients build resilience and holds space for the uncertainties unfolding before us. 33 contributors from both the Global South and Global North explore decolonizing therapy, helping clients recognize and move past unhelpful responses to the climate emergency, and nurturing creativity in the face of crisis. Read the anthology’s foreword, written by Thomas Hübl, PhD: https://lnkd.in/gzdE-jk9

Federal Indian Law scholar Britt Gondolfi invites you to join her and five incredible guest lecturers in the Bioneers Learning course “Indigenizing the Law: Tribal Sovereignty & the Rights of Nature.” In this collaborative podcast-style online course you will meet scholars and Tribal leaders who are today’s most impactful Tribal Sovereignty and Rights of Nature movement builders. Whether you’re a young Tribe member, a Tribal grassroot organizer, or an Ally of Tribes, you will leave this course feeling informed and empowered to make positive change happen for the Tribal lands and waters you care for. The “law” is just a series of stories that create a system. We hope this course is an entertaining and informative story-time that will fire you up to “Indigenize the Law.” Register and learn more: https://buff.ly/3W44yri

With names like the Dingy Footman, Jersey Tiger, Pale Mottled Willow, and Uncertain, and a staggering 140,000 identified species, moths are fascinating in their own right. But no moth is an island — they are vital links in the web of life. Through the lives of these overlooked insects, Professor of Invasion Ecology Tim Blackburn introduces a landscape of unseen ecological connections. The flapping of a moth’s wing may not cause a hurricane, but it is closely tied to the wider world, from the park down the street to climatic shifts across the globe. “The Jewel Box” shows us how the contents of one small box can illuminate the workings of all nature. Read an excerpt from the book: https://buff.ly/3WkekqE

Big Tech is the latest form of tyranny, proclaims Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Corporate domination, especially that of giant tech companies, is undermining our democracy and concentrating wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands. Yet Mitchell, longtime anti-monopoly movement leader, is here to tell us they’ve finally met their match. A broad grassroots alliance, together with a new generation of creative government leaders, is bringing long-dormant anti-monopoly laws and strategies back to life. This promising turn of events offers hope for reclaiming our rights and assuring a far more equitable and greener future. Watch her full presentation: https://buff.ly/3Lay4Xd

🐻 LAST CHANCE to win “Wild Life” by Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant ‼️ Enter by Friday, July 12 at midnight PT for a chance to win a copy of “Wild Life,” Rae’s newly-released memoir following her adventures and explorations in some of the world’s most remote locales. Five randomly selected winners will receive a copy of the novel and discover the fascinating story of the brilliant scientist as she carves a niche for herself as one of very few Black female scientists, journeying from the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar. 🐻 Enter to win here: https://buff.ly/4bx82Jp

We must reject the notion that our debts are a personal moral failing. Frederick Bell, Maddy Clifford, and René Christian Moya, prominent voices from the Debt Collective, discuss the collective’s effort to transform society’s response to indebtedness by revealing the power borrowers and their allies have in solidarity. Through their work, they illuminate how debt intersects with social inequality, housing insecurity, and healthcare access, reframing these debts and pointing toward reparations as the truer societal debt to repay. 💵 Read more about the Debt Collective: https://lnkd.in/gwuwWVQA

Today, three to five giant corporations control up to 80% of almost every industry and marketplace. These monopolies depress wages, exploit workers, and decimate small businesses. Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, has been a longtime leader in a growing anti-monopoly movement with a broad political base. Can this emerging movement – along with bold federal antitrust action – create a force that can challenge corporate power for the first time in decades? 🎧 Tune in to the recent podcast episode where Mitchell discusses the rising anti-monopoly movement with Bioneers: https://lnkd.in/gMe9-QW5

You can recognize the sacred gifts living in you. Registration is open for Dr. Anita Sanchez’s Bioneers Learning course that shares Indigenous wisdom for modern times, brought to you by 27 Indigenous Elders from around the world. 🕯️ Embark on this self-paced journey filled with inrituals, exercises, lessons, and inspirations, and learn to live in harmony and balance with yourself and all beings at this extraordinary time in human evolution. Register now: https://buff.ly/3US5EHe